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SES-3 Satellite Arrives at Baikonour Launch Base

Dépèche transmise le 9 juin 2011 par Business Wire

SES-3 Satellite Arrives at Baikonour Launch Base

LUXEMBOURG--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SES S.A. (Paris:SESG)(LuxX:SESG) announces that the SES-3 satellite today safely arrived at the Baikonour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan onboard an Antonov cargo plane. The SES-3 spacecraft, manufactured by Orbital Sciences Corporation, will now be readied for launch onboard an ILS Proton Breeze M booster, scheduled for lift off on July 10, 2011.

SES-3 is a hybrid C- and Ku-band satellite which will replace AMC-1 at 103 degrees West and provide comprehensive coverage of North America and the Caribbean from this highly sought after location in the Centre of the North American Arc. As such, SES-3 is an integral part of SES’ satellite replacement program over North America. The satellite’s C-band payload will continue hosting blue-chip U.S. television networks broadcasting to over 4,350 cable head-ends while its Ku-band transponders will serve a range of enterprise customers with VSAT and broadband services. The cross-strapping capabilities from C- to Ku-band on the spacecraft will enable customers to further optimize their enterprise networks.

SES-3 is based on Orbital’s space-proven Star 2.4 platform, the largest and most powerful geostationary communications satellites Orbital builds. It carries 24 C-Band transponders and 24 Ku-Band transponders (36 MHz equivalents), generates approximately five kilowatts of payload power, and features a design life of 15 years.

States Romain Bausch, President and CEO of SES: “SES-3 will provide seamless replacement capacity at the important orbital position of 103 degrees West, from where SES feeds TV programming into virtually every cable network in the U.S. As such, the launch of SES-3 will be an important event to a number of our North American customers ensuring a smooth continuation of their operations for years to come. We look forward to another Proton success as the combined teams of ILS, Orbital and SES go through the SES-3 launch count down over the next few weeks.”

About SES

SES (Paris:SESG)(LuxX:SESG) wholly owns the market-leading satellite operators SES ASTRA and SES WORLD SKIES, and participations in Ciel in Canada, QuetzSat in Mexico as well as a strategic participation in satellite infrastructure start-up O3b Networks. SES provides outstanding satellite communications solutions via a global fleet of 44 satellites. For further information: www.ses.com